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Nitrate Problems




Hello Folks:
     As Adriana suggested, here is what is in the tank that I know of. 
These are the tank perameters.
     Tank = 30 gal tall but actually is holding about 22 gals water.
     Lights = 108 watts one 10,000 K compact double florescentwith one of
them blue = 36 watts and one Phase Four with the remianing 72 watts and all
I know is that 2 bulbs are grow lux and the other two are not.
     Substrate = red potters clay, Profile for pond plants, and pumice. 
Over this I have sand in some areas and the river gravel, pebbles and rocks.
Also there are two small pieces of wood.  My substrate is much to shallow I
think.  1.5 inches up to 2 inches, so I am adding washed river gravel.
     Fish = 6 small discus, 12 rasbora, 2 striated botia, 4 other nocturnal
creatures whose name I don't know off hand, 3 bettas and one pleco.
     Plants = Floating water Sprite, 3 small ocelot swords, cryptos of some
sort or other, E Tennelus, short fine hair grass, val or sag, which I don't
know and one Aponogeten of some kind.  They don't label plants at the LFS. 
And because of my nitrate problem and the Melt-down I was having I started
to plant anything, in the hopes something might grow.  Now the melt-down has
stopped and I fear all of it might grow, but that is a problem I look
forward to having.
     pH = 6-7 
     temperature = 84-86 F.  
I add trace minerals for the discus and for now all I have is leaf zone for
the plants and some jobe sticks for the substrates.  I use DIY CO2 via
yeast.  My CO2 test kit from Tetra indicates the CO2 is high but not in
units of measure. 
My nitrates are now 10ppm down from 80 ppm.  I added SEachem's dinitrator
stuff to my filter and the nitrates are coming down.  Also, I do  30% water
changes once a week and now more often.
     My other concern has been that some of the medicine I added to treat
the discus may have harmed the entire system.  I used metronizadole and
furacyn.  How would these or other drugs affect the nitrate level.
     So now I am waiting to see if the tank stabalizes, plants grow and the
nitrates become more manageable.  I am told by list members that nitrates
will be a problem to watch as long as I have discus. Is the slime coat of a
discus unusually more abundant and therefor part of what increases the fish
waste problem in the water chemistry?  If so is this what may be tipping the
scales so that my nitrate levels become so high?  
     Please be patient with my spelling.  
Thanks Diana





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